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By Larry, October 24, 2010 3:55 pm

Weldon McDougal III

Luther Randolph & Johnny Stiles

Listen/Download – Four Larks – Groovin’ at the Go Go

Listen/Download – Cooperettes – Shingaling

Listen/Download – Lee Garrett – I Can’t Break the Habit

Listen/Download – Bernard Williams and the Blue Notes – It’s Needless to Say

Listen/Download – Volcanos – It’s Gotta Be a False Alarm

Listen/Download – Eddie Holman – Stay Mine for Heaven’s Sake

Listen/Download – Eddie Holman – Eddie’s My Name

Listen/Download – Eddie Holman – I’ll Cry 1,000 Tears

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end.

Over the weekend I found out via Colin Dilnot of In Dangerous Rhythm that the legendary producer, performer, songwriter and promoter Weldon McDougal III had passed away.

If the name isn’t familiar, the music he helped create in Philadelphia during the 1960s should be.

McDougal was one of the co-founders (with Luther Randolph and Johnny Stiles) of the legendary Harthon production house.

In addition to the Harthon label, home to many brilliant (and rare) soul 45s, they created, and farmed out to a number of other labels, many equally excellent sides.

If memory serves, I first became aware of Harthon via an old comp of their best stuff (issued and unissued) that turned me on to a wide variety of records that I would hunt breathlessly for the next decade.

The tough thing is, for all the undeniable greatness of the records that McDougal made with Harthon, very little has been published about the label’s history.

Randolph (an organist) and Stiles (sometimes listed as ‘Styles’, guitar) had worked in and around Philadelphia before joining together and recording what would be the first Harthon 45s (one being released on Cameo).

They eventually joined up with McDougal, who was performing with his group the Larks (no relation to the Don Julian group on the West Coast) and the Harthon powerhouse was soon up to full speed.

They eventually brought local group Jo-Ann Jackson and the Dreams into the studio and recorded ‘Georgie Porgie’ (no doubt aimed at garnering airplay from local radio giant Georgie Woods), the first 45 on the label that wasn’t a Randolph/Styles instrumental.

In Tony Cummings rare – and indispensable – tome The Sound of Philadelphia (the source for most of what I know about the partnership), Stiles was quoted as to the source of the Harthon sound:

“The sound we were trying to get was that Motown sound. The Detroit thing was what was happening so we just tried to get as near to it as we could. Our things were done in a small time kinda studio but we got the sound we wanted.”

Stiles was basically getting to the root of the Northern Soul equation, i.e. reaching back to the Motor City and trying to recreate/expand on the sound in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

The music that McDougal, Randolph and Stiles would create over the next few years, with the help of the famed Philly rhythm section (Bobby Eli, Norman Harris, Earl Young, Ronnie Baker), writers and producers like Thom Bell, Eddie Holman and many others, created a number of records that are worshiped to this day on the Northern scene, and have also become some of my favorites, making Harthon my all-time favorite soul label.

Over the years I’ve been tracking down Harthon records (It was years before I scored an OG with the famous black and orange logo see above) I ended up following all kinds of leads and discovering a number of things I hadn’t expected.

The tunes I’m featuring today – I’ll be posting Harthon stuff all week – are in many ways the cream of the Harthon crop (at least to my ears) all bearing the marks of the label’s sound, i.e. solid, hook-laden songwriting, sparkling production and most important of all, fantastic singers.

The first of these is what is probably the best known of all Harthon productions, the Four Larks (McDougal’s group with a ‘Four’ added to distinguish them with the LA group) ‘Groovin’ at the Go Go. Written and arranged by Thom Bell, ‘Groovin’ at the Go Go’ is a record that I chased for a long time, often being outbid (when it showed up for auction) and bemoaning my failure to procure it – in this very space – often.

Then, in what must surely be one of the great moments of vinyl related altruism, a reader found a copy and sent it to me, gratis.

Needless to say my mind was good and truly blown (this is not a cheap record) and the 45 has held a place of honor in my record box ever since then.

Leased to the Capitol Records subsidiary Tower, ‘Groovin’ at the Go Go’ is one of those records that in a just world would have been a huge hit.

The record featured Irma Jackson on lead vocals, and has a great repeated riff played on piano and vibes, backed by a throbbing bass and drums, as well as wonderful, atmospheric backing vocals and a horn chart that won’t quit.

I don’t know much about the Cooperettes other than the music I’ve heard on their Brunswick and ABC 45s. They were a Philly-based girl group, and their ‘Shingaling’ is an absolutely stunning Northern-styled pounder. This track would later be recycled as the unreleased (but heavily bootlegged) ‘You Need Love’ by Irma and the Fascinators. I’ll post a recording of my bootleg 45 later this week.

The next two cuts were also lifted from bootleg 45s (there was a brisk trade in bootlegs on the Northern Soul scene in the 70s) , and are among the finest things to come out of Harthon (if only I’d been able to score original copies, but alas…).

The first is by Lee Garrett, who would later move to Detroit, recording his own records as well as co-writing the Spinners hit ‘It’s a Shame’. ‘I Can’t Break the Habit’ is a killer with a great vocal by Garrett and a very cool piano interlude in the second half of the record.

The other bootleg-sourced cut is in my Top 3 Harthon sides, Bernard Williams and the Blue Notes ‘It’s Needless To Say’. I know I’m repeating myself, but this record really, REALLY should have been a hit. It has it all, great songwriting, performance, production and arrangement. This is the group that was formed when the original Blue Notes split up, with Williams forming his group and Harold Melvin forming the other.

The next cut is the A-side from one of the two 45s the mighty Volcanos recorded during their brief sojourn with Harthon. Aside from a typically solid lead vocal by Gene Faith, the record features a pounding instrumental backing, which would later be bootlegged in the UK with the vocals stripped off (credited to the Body Motions). I’ve never been able to nail down the chronology of the Volcanos time with Harthon, but a number of clues (including the funkier b-sides on the 45s) lead me to believe that they were recorded after the group’s Arctic period but before the sides released on Virtue, which are basically Gene Faith solo records (the remainder of the group moving on to record as the Moods and the Trammps).

Eddie Holman

The last three cuts are two of the finest soul sides produced by any label, let alone Harthon.

If you mention the name Eddie Holman to most people, the record that comes to mind is ‘Hey There Lonely Girl’ the Ruby and the Romantics* cover that Holman took into the Top 10 in 1970. However, one of my earliest Philly soul related obsessions was tracking down and reveling in the spectacular nature of the 45s that Holman recorded with Harthon for Cameo/Parkway and Bell during the mid-60s.

Often working with his writing partner James Solomon, Holman, possessor of one of the mightiest singing voices ever committed to vinyl, recorded several remarkable 45s that were largely ignored by radio. Aside from 1966s ‘This Can’t Be True’ (to be posted later this week) Holman was absent from the Top 40 until he hit with ‘Lonely Girl’.

The first of these is ‘Stay Mine for Heaven’s Sake’. Written by Holman and Solomon, and arranged by Luther Randolph, ‘Stay Mine…’ is yet another record that seemingly had every prerequisite for chart success, pop hooks, solid arrangement and above all Holman’s voice.

The second of the Holman sides featured today is the Northern Soul favorite (and a record I’m proud to say I scored digging within the Philadelphia city limits) ‘Eddie’s My Name’. Propelled by a speedy dancers beat, handclaps and sharp snare drum shots, ‘Eddie’s My Name’, with production credited to ‘Randolph, Stiles and McDougal’ is a big fave with the soulies and has been comped a bunch of times.

The final record for today is Holman’s epic ballad performance ‘I’ll Cry 1,000 Tears’. Released on the Bell label, this is the Eddie Holman 45 that eluded me the longest. With a melody that occasionally touches on Jimmy Ruffin’s ‘What Becomes of the Broken Hearted’, ‘I’ll Cry…’ is really Holman’s vocal tour de force. The chorus sees him soaring to almost operatic heights against an amazing arrangement. This was his last 45 with Harthon (in 1968), before moving to ABC.

The end of Holman’s tenure with Harthon coincided with the end of the partnership. McDougal would leave Philadelphia to go work in promotions for Motown, where he stayed until returning to Philly in 1972 to work with Gamble and Huff at Philly International.

The news of McDougal’s unfortunate passing led me back into the crates where I dug out a couple of Harthon rarities, which I’ll be posting later in the week.

I hope you dig the sounds.

Peace

Larry

*Originally recorded as ‘Hey There Lonely Boy’

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By Larry, October 7, 2010 5:11 pm

Richard Marks

Listen/Download – Richard Marks – Funky Four Corners (inst)

Greetings all.

I’m back, but I wouldn’t swear that I’m all there, if you know what I mean.

I make reference in this space repeatedly to the storied “real world moves” and I’m not kidding. In addition to the recent health-related stuff (things are cool, but I’m taking a little time to bounce back) we’ve had a full slate of responsibilities here in the Funky16Corners compound, which are on the cusp of a shift, which, if not resulting in a net gain of free time, will at least preclude a loss thereof.

That said, I’m whipped right now (physically, not philosophically), so I’m going to keep it relatively brief.

First off, I have one of my Marvin sets from the DC trip recorded and ready to go, bit it’s been so mix-heavy here lately I figured I’d drop some individual tracks and bring that mix into the lineup in the next few weeks.

I’m also working on a special election mix. I was pulling records for it this morning, but I still have a little theoretical/curatorial cooking to do, and there’s still four weeks until the rise of the cranks, so just know that it’ll be here sooner or later.

There’s also a brand new edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show this week (I made sure to whip it up before all the recent excitement), so you’ll want to set aside an hour this Friday to dig it (though you can always fall by the blog on Saturday and pull down the ones and zeros for your personal listening device).

The track I bring you today is one of my DC finds, and it was a groovy one indeed.

I already knew Richard Marks’ ‘Funky Four Corners Pt1’ via a comp (it appeared here in the ‘Getting the Corners’ mix) but I hadn’t scored a copy of the 45 until my trip to Washington.

When I got the 45 and gave it a spin, I was very pleased to discover that ‘Funky Four Corners Pt2’ was no run of the mill ‘second half of a funk 45’ but rather a very cool version of the tune as guitar instrumental (a la Lowell Fulsom’s ‘Tramp’/’Pico’ pairing).

According to my man Brian Poust over at the Georgia Soul blog, Marks was an Atlanta-based guitarist, which naturally makes me think that it’s him plucking the funky git-box on FFC2.

I love the production, and the reverb and fat tone of the lead guitar on this one, so much so that I think were I to slip it into my record box, I’d be happy playing either side of this one for a room full of dancers.

I hope you dig it too, and that you all have a groovy weekend.

I’m gonna go get some snoozeration….

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some proto-powerpop

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By Larry, September 30, 2010 3:04 pm

Ekseption and their shiny silver sleeve…

Listen/Download – Ekseption – Ritual Fire Dance

Greetings all.

Please allow me to begin by making a simple statement of fact.

I am definitely getting too old for this shit.

Hooboy….

I piled myself and my records into the trusty Funky16Corners-mobile last Saturday morning, and set off (alone) for a whirlwind weekend of DJ-ing and digging in Washington, DC.

That was the easy part.

I had a grip of podcasts to keep me company on the trip and the drive down was uneventful (and quick). I rolled into the city by the early afternoon, meeting up with my buddy DJ Birdman and his lovely family (finally getting to meet Birdman Jr.!), followed by some digging (natch…whatup to Marshall and Mike) and then on to some delicious bar-b-que ribs.

That night Birdman and I did the late shift at Marvin where the crowd was predictably lively (with many predictable and unsuitable requests, but that’s how these things go). I recorded one of my sets (funk and disco), which I’ll be posting here sometime in the next few weeks.

The next morning, following an all too brief bit of sleep, we got up and rolled out to the DC Record Fair, where Birdman (and some other DC heads, whatup Neal and Nightkrawler) were running the show and had to get things set up. The U Street Music Hall was a very nice space, and the Record Fair produced some stellar results which will see the light of day well into the next year (or two) here on the blog.

I spun a set of uptempo Northern Soul at the Fair, which I did not record (left the recorder in the car…), but if you want a taste go back to the Northern set I did at Master Groove earlier this year (Funky16Corners Radio v.82 Groovin’ at the Go Go) which repeats about half of what I played on Sunday and you’ll get the idea. I’ll whip up an all-new Northern mix sometime in the not too distant future.

The folks at the Record Fair were very cool, especially the old school soulie right in front of the DJ booth (perhaps the most luxurious DJ booth I’ve ever been in, I felt spoiled) who requested the Just Brothers ‘Sliced Tomatoes’ about ten seconds after I’d already cued it up (it was kismet I tell you!), and it was very cool to meet up with some old friends and make first-person contact with a couple of interwebs acquaintances.

I have to say that DC is always a chill scene, with cool people and tons of great records to be had. The thought of restricting my digs to the DC area crossed my mind, but then I remembered what a degenerate record collector I am and realized that just wasn’t going to happen.

I rolled out of the Record Fair about an hour after I finished my set with a HUGE stack of vinyl, including more than a few longtime want list items (on 45 and LP). The only bummer being that I don’t have any pics, since I didn’t bring my camera, instead relying on my new phone, which I still haven’t learned to operate properly, rendering the few pictures I took tiny, low-res and unusable.

As is always the case, Igot lost on my way out of DC. It wasn’t too bad, but by the time I hit Baltimore I also hit the wall. My tired old carcass is not used to being treated like it’s 25 again, and I ran out of steam, forcing a pit stop at Starbucks where I loaded up on coffee and food and hit the road once again.

Unfortunately, as easy as my ride down to DC was, my ride home was plagued with difficulty, including an insane traffic jam in northern Maryland (understaffed toll booth related) and then another jam up in NJ which forced me to alter my route and take a time consuming detour.

This all followed by the fact that I had yet another medical procedure scheduled for Tuesday morning, and I’m sitting here at the laptop just about ready to go into hibernation.

I have something cool in the cooker for Monday morning (just waiting for all the pieces to arrive in the in-box) and after that I’m not sure what I’ll do, since I now have so much to choose from (in addition to everything else aging in the oaken barrels in the vinyl cellar).

I figured I’d close out the week with something I’ve wanted to post for a while now. Even though I’d digi-ma-tized it weeks (months?) ago, when I went to post it I discovered that I had neglected to photograph the label, but – as is always the case – when I was pulling records for the DC trip I put aside a number of records similarly afflicted, and I bring it to you now, better late than never.

I first posted something by the Dutch prog band Ekseption way back in 2007 when I included their version of the soul jazz classic ‘This Here’ in Funky16Corners Radio v.32. Some time after that, while engaged in a little e-digging, I discovered a 45 of yet another of their classical pastiches (something they did a lot), this time a version of Manuel de Falla’s ‘Ritual Fire Dance’ from his 1915 ballet ‘El Amor Brujo’.

I posted a couple of other jazz-funk reworkings of classical pieces a while back (with Deodato and Woody Herman covering Strauss and Copland), and while I’m not likely to make it a regular feature here at the Corners, the Ekseption 45 is so groovy I would be remiss were I not to share it with you.

I have to admit that I was not familiar with de Falla’s original piece when I first heard it (check out Artur Rubinstein playing it here, for comparison), but after hearing it in its original setting, it’s safe to say that aside from some heavy drums and organ (and giving it that Euro-swinger je ne sais quois), Ekseption don’t really stray too far from the source.

I don’t think I’d be telling tales out of school were I to suggest that this particular gem might get some of your modder types out onto the floor, with a little bit of that au-go-go flavour.

In other news, don’t forget to tune in Friday night at 9PM for this week’s all-new edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio. I assure you that the collection of funk, soul, jazz and rare groove that awaits you get your weekend off to a groovy start.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some puh-sike-a-dellia….

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By Larry, September 26, 2010 5:46 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.88 – Throbbing Organs

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive

This is being prepared in advance of my excursion to Washington, so any reporting on that trip will have to wait until later in the week.

Hopefully it was a gas and I found lots of groovy records.

That said, it’s been a while since the last organ mix (a live mix, back in January), and I can’t go very long without a Hammond infusion, so I figured it was time.

This mix is all over the map, with some hard driving R&B, soul, funk and even a little bit of soul jazz, but since we’re talking about the universe of the Hammond organ, that’s kind of how these things swing.

A couple of these tracks have seen the light of day here on Funky16Corners individually (none recently), but since two slices of bacon is always better than one, and organ records are the soulful and delicious equivalent of bacon in the musical food pyramid, it couldn’t possibly hurt to hear them again.

Anyhoo… this week might be a little light, since I’m one hundred and eleventy seven percent that I will be returning from DC exhausted, and then I have a little surgical type thingy on Tuesday which is sure to knock me on my ass for a few days, but it’s one of those ‘gotta do it when you gotta do it’ deals, so there.

I hope you dig the mix, and I’m sure I’ll make it back onto the scene by the end of the week (if not sooner).

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for a new psyche mix!

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

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By Larry, September 23, 2010 3:33 pm

Jimmy Smith

Listen/Download – Jimmy Smith – The Cat

Greetings all.

I have so much stuff to do this weekend that I was going to forgo the regularly scheduled Friday post, but thought it might be a good idea to touch base with you all about the goings on here in Funky16Cornersville that I changed my mind.

First and foremost, I’ll be traveling down to Washington, DC this weekend with my records for a couple of DJ-type extravaganzas.

Saturday night I’ll be sharing the decks with my man DJ Birdman at Marvin (2007 14th Street, NW), and while we’re likely to get started on the mellower side of things, you know that as soon as the little hand starts pointing up the place will be banging, so if you dig delicious food, Belgian beer and the best in funk, soul and disco, you should fall by and join us.

The following day I’ll be doing a set at the DC Record Fair, and naturally also buying some records. I expect I’ll be running into all manner of interwebs friends, so stop by and say hi if you’re there.

Of course if you’re about on Friday night, say around 9PM you should head over to Viva internet radio for the Funky16Corners Radio Show for an hour of the best funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from original vinyl sources. The show will be then be archived (as an MP3) for download.

The track I bring you today is one of the truly great things that Jimmy Smith recorded during the 60s (maybe his best).

‘The Cat’ is a stunner, and that my friends is all I going to (or have time to) say this fine day (aside from the following bit of hyperbole…or is it???). It smokes from start to finish and is the bad-assiest of all the bad-ass, bad-assery ever committed via the intercession of Mr. Hammond’s mighty electric organ-o-phone.

Dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday with a whole new mix of Hammond organ goodness.

Have yourselves a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some puh-sike-a-dellia….

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By Larry, September 19, 2010 2:57 pm

The Masqueraders

Listen/Download – Masqueraders – I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On

Listen/Download – Masqueraders – Love Peace and Understanding

Greetings all.

This is going to be a very busy week, with the real world moves mixed in with DJ gigs on Sunday in NYC (past) and next Sat and Sun in DC.

However, your intrepid blogger will not be stayed from the swift completion of his appointed rounds,
The two tunes I bring you today are by one of the more interesting soul groups that I’ve come across.
I first came to the Masqueraders in a rather roundabout way, after discovering that one of my favorite tunes on the Dynamics ‘First Landing’ album was in fact a cover of a Masqueraders tune.

This sent me a-Googling, and I discovered that the Masqueraders were the very definition of a journeyman soul group, having recorded for a wide variety of labels (under a few names) between the late 50s and the mid-70s, never having made a significant impact despite some very high quality records.

Finding out about the group via the Dynamics connection, I set out in search of their 45s, keeping their name filed in the back of my mind.

The basic framework of their story follows them from Texas, to Detroit, and then on to Memphis where they recorded a big chunk of their best stuff alongside the legendary Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill (for a detailed look at their history check out these articles at The B-Side, Solid Hit Soul and SoulExpress).
Both of today’s tunes were recorded during their late-60s Memphis period, and were both written by the group.

‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On’ (from 1967) was the Masqueraders tune I heard performed by the Dynamics. The tune was also covered by Rosey Grier (who also recorded for AGP) and a group called the Gentlemen Four. It’s a great piece of rough harmony soul, with some great guitar work. The Masqueraders’ version is (at least to my ears) far superior to the Dynamics (excellent) cover (I haven’t heard the other two versions).

1969’s ‘Love Peace and Understanding’ is a fantastic, upbeat number with era-specific lyrics that reinforces the group’s songwriting cred. Like ‘I’Don’t Want Nobody…’ it sounds like a rougher, groovier take on the Detroit group sound of the time, like a funkier, more aggressive Four Tops.

The Masqueraders hit the R&B charts a few times in the 60s, and again with a later version of the group in the 80s.

Many of their best 60s and 70s records are included in the comp ‘The Masqueraders Unmasked’.

I hope you dig the tunes and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Don’t forget, I’ll be heading down to Washington, DC for a weekend of fun. Saturday evening 9/25 I will be spinning at Marvin with my man DJ Birdman, bringing the finest in funk, soul and disco to perk up your ears and move your feet. The following day I will be spinning a set at the DC Record Fair. Fall by and say howdy if you’re in the area.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some pop-psyche goodness.

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By Larry, September 11, 2010 5:24 pm

‘Diamond Joe’ Maryland.

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – Fair Play

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – Gossip Gossip

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – The ABC Song

Listen/Download – Diamond Joe – Look Way Back

Greetings all.

Those of you that have been here for a while might remember a time a few years back where there was a period of a couple of months where there seemed to be an obit posted here at least once a week.

I take no joy whatsoever in reporting the deaths of the musicians we revere, but considering the lack of respect many of these artists got during their lives, or are like to get after they pass, it seems only fair that we all stop and take a moment to remember them and the music they made.

A few days ago, I got an e-mail notification that someone had signed the Guest List at the Funky16Corners webzine.

The webzine has been around for a decade, and there’s lots of content there, from feature stories and discographies to simple 45 reviews, and it’s depth and longevity has turned it into a huge Google-net of sorts, in that it sends up results for all kinds of searches, some related, some not.

This has proven to be an interesting by-product, since lots of musicians and their families have gotten in contact with me via hitting the webzine.

Unfortunately, as is the case with all news, sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad.

When I went to collect the message, I was struck with an odd mix of sadness and excitement. Sad because it led to an obituary for one of my all-time favorite soul singers, and excitement because I had no inkling of his whereabouts, and at one time had heard that he was homeless.

That man was Joseph ‘Diamond Joe’ Maryland.

The world of 60s soul is filled with stories, many of which are short, bittersweet and ultimately incomplete.
Diamond Joe, a masterful singer and accomplished songwriter, who made two of my Top 10 soul 45s during his very short career, starred in such a story.

What little I’ve ever been able to find out about him has been by and large related to his recordings, made during a period that lasted less than a decade.

He was a New Orleans singer who recorded all of his work alongside the mighty Allen Toussaint, but like a few other artists in that orbit, also wrote some of his own material.

I probably first heard his amazing voice when I encountered his 1966 Sansu 45 ‘Gossip Gossip’ on an old Charly Records CD comp. It was an eye-opening experience in that it was clear from the very first time I heard it that ‘Gossip Gossip’ was one of the truly great soul 45s of the 60s.

What was also clear was that I had never heard the tune, nor its singer before, and as is always the case, its started me on a years-long search for the rest of his recordings.

The first sad marker in this saga was discovering that he had only recorded seven 45s in his short career.
I’ve been collecting obscure music for most of my life, and while a lot of it is good, some of it great, every once in a great while you discover a record that is absolutely brilliant. Diamond Joe recorded two of these records, and his reward was utter obscurity.

This is galling because, as it is with anything in life, when you find something that blows your mind, you’d naturally like to find more of it, and when that something begins and ends with just over a dozen songs, and then trails off into nothingness, it borders on infuriating.

Diamond Joe was, like Eldridge Holmes (who also worked almost exclusively with Toussaint) a singer of great talent, as adept with epic ballads as he was with rough edged, fast moving soul. He was possessed of a gruff baritone that could move from a growl to the most subtle whisper within the few minutes of music on a 45.

As tempting as it is to wonder why he wasn’t more successful, the point is ultimately moot. Whether it was because he was lost in a huge pool of talent in New Orleans (there are TONS of amazing New Orleans 45s that never got heard much outside of the region), or an even bigger pool nationally, or that he was just fated to create great records that few would hear (cruel fate, that), as far as I can tell be never recorded after his last Deesu 45 (both sides of which are included here today).

Until I saw the picture posted with his obit (seen above) I had no idea what he looked like.

The four tunes I post in his memory include both of my favorites, as well as a few other great ones to illustrate the breadth of his talent.

The earliest of these is 1963’s ‘Fair Play’, written by Earl King and Allen Orange. ‘Fair Play’ is an absolutely mid-bending record. In just over two minutes you get to hear Diamond Joe wrap his amazing voice around a heartbreaking melody, all contained within a stunning arrangement (how many soul records have you heard with autoharp??). No matter how many times I hear this one, it still haunts me.

‘Gossip Gossip’, from 1966 is one of those records that in a just world would have been a hit. Once again you combine a great arrangement (I believe that’s Toussaint’s speaking voice you hear at the beginning) that combines rough organ, chopping rhythm guitar and a majestic horn chart, all dwarfed by Diamond Joe’s powerful vocal.

The last two songs here are the two sides of Diamond Joe’s final 45, recorded for the Deesu label in (I believe) 1968.

‘The ABC Song’ and ‘Look Way Back’ were both written by the singer with one side funky and the other side a preaching ballad. He’s great in both styles/

I’d say you should head out there and pick yourself up some Diamond Joe, but as far as I can tell, nothing remains in print. His 45s are not easy to come by.

I hope you dig what you’re hearing today and my heart goes out to his family.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg

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By Larry, August 29, 2010 3:22 pm

Ray Barretto

Listen/Download – Ray Barretto – A Deeper Shade of Soul

Greetings all.

I hope everything’s groovy at your specific GPS location, and anywhere else you choose to roam.

Summer is winding down, slowly, and while the weather is still warm (some might say hot) the days of summery freedom are also coming to an end, with the wife and kids headed back to school, and the rhythm of life changing once again.

To present a brief ‘state of the Corners’ address, things are mainly cool hereabouts. The Funky16Corners Radio Show has developed into something more satisfying (at least for me, hopefully for you all too) over the summer, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it.

The DJing opportunities around here have, for a variety of reasons (some that I am not privy to), all but vanished, but I will be heading down to DC again toward the end of September to spin with my man DJ Birdman (more details to follow soon), so hopefully I’ll be able to touch base with some of the Capitol City heads who have always been so cool.

Other than that, things should continue on a steady course, with new mixes (regular old Funky16Corners and Soul Club) coming, as well as a steady stream of funk, soul, jazz and rare groove to soothe your troubled mind (and mine too, if I’m lucky).

The tune I bring you today is something I came to in a roundabout way.

The first time I had any inkling of Ray Barretto’s ‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ was back in 1989, when I heard it sampled by the Dutch group Urban Dance Squad in their song of the same name. Of course even though I knew it was probably a sample, I had no idea who it was, and pretty much left it at that.

Flash forward a few years and my buddy Haim lends me the CD reissue of  Barretto’s 1968 ‘Acid’ album, and I’m listening to it (wishing I had an OG) and all of a sudden ‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ comes pouring into my ears and I’m all WTF?!? and the lightbulb goes on over my head, and then (of course) blows up.

Now these many years later, and I’m all hip to Ray Barretto and all of that good mid-to-late 60s Latin soul and funk, and while I had a couple of his 45s and LPs, an OG of ‘Acid’ (possibly THE essential Latin soul LP) had still eluded me.

Well, another one of those Asbury Lanes garage sales rolled around, and it was a particularly rewarding one, and I’ve just about run my way through all my ready cash, and then some dude I’ve never seen before sets up a table full of LPs, and before I know it me and about a half dozen other heads are pulling all kinds of OG Latin LPs out of his crates. As I mentioned, I was just about tapped out, and when I discovered that these LPs (while affordable) were not cheap I had to put back a couple of very nice things, including an OG Lat-Teens LP, but I walked away with a nice, clean copy of ‘Acid’.

While I still dig the Urban Dance Squad tune (it has a kind of stoney groove that I like) there’s just no comparison with Barretto’s original.

‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ is an absolutely perfect slice of soulful boogaloo, with prominent piano, percussion (natch…) and a horn chart that digs into ‘Knock On Wood’ for inspiration. The arrangements were handled by none other than Harvey Averne, so you know it’s good.

‘Acid’ was Barretto’s first LP for Fania, following his earlier chart success (on labels like Tico and UA) with tunes like 1963’s ‘El Watusi’.

If you haven’t heard ‘Acid’ (which also includes ‘Soul Drummers’, ‘Mercy Mercy Baby’, and ‘Teacher of Love’ among others) you should grab yourself a reissue (or an OG if you can find it) since it’s a great album from start to finish.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back in the middle of the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a cool Nilsson cover.

Comments (3)

By Larry, August 26, 2010 4:37 pm

The Commodores

Listen/Download – The Commodores – Machine Gun

Greetings all.

The week is at an end, and if I’m lucky, by the time you’re reading this the fam and I will be away on the vacay, as it were (thus I’m canning and vacuum sealing this one a few days in advance).
I meant to drop this one a while back, since I picked up the 45 last year when I was spinning with DJ Birdman down in DC. Unfortunately, which is often the case around here as my mind deteriorates more rapidly each day, I neglected to take a picture of the 45, then I filed it away in the giant heaving mass of vinyl that sits behind me while I type this. However, recently, while I was pulling some records for to be digimatized, I happened upon the Commodores Greatest Hits LP, so in essence what you’re hearing is the 45, what you’re seeing is the LP, but since it’s all the Commodores, you’ll have to bear with me.
I have to admit that I wrote the Commodores off for years, thanks in large part to the lame, middle of the road and largely un-soulful solo career of Lionel Richie.
No matter that ‘Brick House’, the official funk song of elderly relatives (which they all dance to at weddings), is actually quite good, it all blended together for me into one big, unpleasant heap.
My bad.
Years back, I’m sitting there watching the movie ‘Boogie Nights’, and all of a sudden a very groovy song comes on the soundtrack in a discotheque scene, and I’m all ‘What’s that?” and then the credits rolled around and I was all “The Commodores, eh?” and therein lies a minor re-evaulation thereof.
That, and the fact that a cursory listen will set your ears a-tingling when you recognize the sample from the Beastie Boys ‘Hey Ladies’ pop in.
All that aside, ‘Machine Gun’ is a badass number packed end to end with enough clavinet to blow your mind, some very tasty wah-wah guitar and – if I might – not a single note of Lionel Richie’s melodious voice to screw things up.
The Commodores came together in the late 60s at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and signed to Motown releasing their first album (also titled ‘Machine Gun’) in 1974. The title track (written by guitarist Milan Williams) was a hit in 1975, and despite the presence of synthesizers (or maybe because of it) ‘Machine Gun’ manages to be solidly funky, and eminently danceable (without being stereotypically disco-ey, though it was clearly a hit on the dance floor).
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some groovy mid-60s pop.

Comments (5)

By Larry, August 8, 2010 3:18 pm

F16C Soul Club Presents – Vincent the Soul Chef – I Learned It By Watching You

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Soul Club Archive

I hope the new week finds you all well.
The mix you see before you is the newest installment in the groovy juggernaut known as the Funky16Corners Soul Club.

The name of the mixer should be familiar to fans of soul and funk blogging, that being the mighty Vincent the Soul Chef of Fufu Stew. I’ve known Vincent for a few years now, and can tell you from personal experience that he knows his shit, can handle a couple of turntables with the best of them, and has exquisite taste in music (which when you get down to it is really the bedrock).

What the Soul Chef has cooked up for us is over an hour of tasty funk  – a bouillabaisse if you will – composed of breaks, beats, thumping bass, wah wah guitar and vocals, with ingredients foraged in New Jersey, DC, San Fran, Memphis, New Orleans, Chitown and many points in between.

Vincent uses only the freshest funk, prepared with skill and whisked to your table so you might fill up on the good stuff.

I’ve given this one a couple of spins, and I’m sure you’ll dig it.

So fix yourself a plate, and make sure to head over to Fufu Stew.

See you later in the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for something unexpected.

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (5)

By Larry, July 27, 2010 6:07 pm

The Exciters

Listen/Download – The Exciters – Do Wah Diddy

Greetings all.
Is every one all up in the Simon and Garfunkel, i.e. feeling groovy?
The heat continues unabated, which wouldn’t bear mentioning, except for the fact that I went outside on Sunday to do yard work and ended up like one of those sweat-soaked, sun stroked chain gang fools in a Cool hand Luke stylee and ended up with just enough strength to crawl into bed, slap on my iPod and pass out about halfway into the first song.
Honest to jeebus it’s been a brutal summer hereabouts, and with me all pale and as sun-phobic as the next Morlock, I’m not digging it too much.
Don’t get me wrong…I like it when it’s hot, but like 85-ish. Once you break the 90 degree line, every time you set foot out of doors you can almost hear the cliched snippet of Delta blues slide guitar they always play when some poor slob is about to get run out of some dusty backwoods burgh (or vanish forever, depending on the movie).
That said, I’m lucky enough to be able to step back inside to the refrigerated (as they used to say in the olden days) air of the house, where my records sit safely, unwarped by the heat, and the beer chills in the fridge-o-manator so that I may do the same on the davenport.
That said, I was wondering what to post this fine day, and thought that something, summery, yet upbeat, with just a soupcon of history might fit the bill.
Wanna hear it? Here it is…
I’ve made mention – and demonstrated via example – that I am an absolute fiend when it comes to hunting down original versions of famous tunes in the soul, funk, blues and rock oeuvres. In fact, some day I’m gonna have to get my shnizzle together and whip them on y’all in podcast form, or maybe over at the old Funky16Corners Radio thing.
Hunting these things down, mainly via the heavy blues explosion of the late 60s led me down into the sounds of the Delta, the Piedmont and into Texas where many of these tunes were born.
Of course, not every OG harkens back to the 20s and 30s, many of them were more recent creations, i.e. first committed to wax during the 50s or even the early 60s, with the R&B and soul, and electric blues performers that exerted a much more significant influence on the British Invaders of ‘64 and beyond.
One of these artifacts, that I’d known about for decades, but only scored a copy of earlier this year is the track I bring you today.
I’ll assume that literally everyone reading this has heard the version of ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ by Manfred Mann, which was a huge hit in 1964, and has forever after been a staple of oldies radio. Featuring the voice of Paul Jones (one of the more soulful singers of his time) the Manfred’s version, like many of their storming covers of blues and soul material actually does justice to the original (and maybe exceeds it in some respects).
That original was recorded by the Exciters the year before. Their version only reached #78 on the Pop charts, quite a letdown after their biggest hit ‘Tell Him’ which was Top 20 earlier in 1963, and is also a cornerstone of oldies radio.
Written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, the Exciters’ original is still a slamming slice of soulful group action, with pounding drums, and a wild lead vocal by Brenda Reid. The production by the geniuses (and my idols) Leiber and Stoller is spot on, and a little rawer than you might expect from a group often thought of as a ‘girl group’ (even though there was a guy – Herb Rooney –  in their ranks).
The instrumentation is pretty basic, with drums and piano backing the singers, followed by a horn section. Things get a little more ornate in the bridge, but you’d never mistake it for a Phil Spector production, though the chimes in the instrumental break lean in that direction a tiny bit.
Give it a close listen and you can almost imagine you’re there watching Leiber and Stoller building it bit by bit.
Though they’re known mainly as songwriters, they deserve a lot of credit for their work producing and arranging records as well, especially in an era where the best of the Brill Building-related writers were all making strides in that regard.
The Exciters remained together into the early 70s, though their last chart record was a 1966 cover of the Jarmels’ ‘Little Bit of Soap’. You should also be on the lookout for their Northern Soul stormer ‘Blowing Up My Mind’ from 1969 (I know I’m still looking for a copy…).
It’s a great cut, and I hope you dig it.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some great instrumental pop.

Comments (2)

By Larry, July 25, 2010 1:57 pm

Donnie Burks

Listen/Download – Donnie Burks – The Gopher

Listen/Download – Donnie Burks – Funky Funky Woman

Greetings all.
I come to you, secure in the refrigerated Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcast Nerve Center, where I’m currently hiding from the near 100 degree weather outside.
I’ve spent the afternoon, digimatizing vinyl, ripping old CDs onto the new iPod and trying to refile records.
I was going to write about something else today, but I decided to do a little more research on that particular selection, so today’s numbers moved to the front of the line.
I found this record last Record Store Day in Asbury Park, and despite the fact that the artist was unknown to me, I grabbed it as it was both cheap, and intriguing.
I’d never heard of Donnie Burks before, but he looked vaguely familiar, and the record appeared to be American soul recorded (or at least released) in Europe, so I slapped a couple of semolians on the barrelhead and took the record home.
As soon as I set to Googling, I discovered a couple of very interesting things.
Donnie Burks, though fairly obscure as a singer, had a multi-layered career in his lifetime, starting out as a college basketball star, and moving on to appear in movies and on the Broadway stage.
When he passed away in 2008 at the age of 66, his glory days were long behind him.
It turns out that the reason he was familiar to me was that he had appeared as the grapes in a famous string of Fruit of the Loom underwear commercials (in which a group of dudes in fruit costumes touted the brand as a facsimile of the cornucopia in its logo).
Burks first came to prominence playing basketball for St John’s University in the late 50s and early 60s. He went on to appear in movies (The Pawnbroker, Shaft, Without a Trace*) and TV, as well as in a number of Broadway musicals (Hair, the Tap Dance Kid).
I have no idea how he came to record the album that gives us today’s track, but I have seen listings that suggest that he recorded at least two other 45s  for the Decca and Metromedia labels.
The tunes I bring you today, ‘The Gopher’ and ‘Funky Funky Woman’ come from the ‘Swingin’ Sounds of Soul’ LP. ‘The Gopher’ a cool, uptempo soul dancer. The production isn’t the best, but Burkes was a more than able singer and I’d be interested to hear his other 45s.
‘Funky Funky Woman’ carries the DNA of ‘Funky Broadway’, but it sounds as if it were strained through ‘Boogaloo Down Broadway’ first. Not terribly funky, but if I had a nickel for every record I’ve seen with ‘funky’ in the title, that isn’t (funky, that is), I’d have a huge, shiny pile of nickels.
I’d also love to know how Burks ended up recording (or at least releasing) an album in Germany. He was in the original Broadway cast of ‘Hair’ and the likely vintage of these recordings makes me wonder if he didn’t record it while overseas with a touring cast of the show. If anyone knows, please drop me a line.
I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

*He’s a little hard to nail down via IMDB since he appears to be listed under a few different spellings of his name.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a groovy instrumental